For some reason, I have wanted an external hard drive for a long time. I really don't need one as I don't have a lot of irreplaceable files. I could fit all of them on one DVD with plenty of room to spare. All of my cases and motherboards have room for four or more drives. I have no need to transport large amounts of data either. Actually, I transport nearly no data at all. I can share files between my computers on my network. Still, every time I see one, there is this desire deep inside of me to get one.

A recent upgrade to my rig left me with a totally unused SATA drive, so the time is right for me to delve into the world of external drives.

I would like to welcome Vizo Technologies as OCIA.net's latest sponsor of review items. Viso is located in Taiwan and for the past decade has been designing and building innovative storage enclosures, input devices, fans, cooling solutions, CCFLs, card readers, USB hubs, and other accessories.



The Luxon comes packaged in this attractive box, which my flash does no justice.



It is well protected... it shipped from Taiwan to Mississippi in only a larger outer box without peanuts. Hmmm... there's lots of stuff in this box.



The Luxon is very shiny. This one is black with silver trim. It is slightly larger than a paperback book.

Features:

-Fully supports 3.5" IDE or SATA Hard Drive

Supports 480Mbps High Speed USB 2.0, and USB 1.1

Supports 1.5Gbps SATA

-Four functions:

USB to IDE HDD, USB to SATA HDD,

SATA to IDE HDD, SATA to SATA HDD

-Mirror finish and three available colors (Black, Blue, Gray)

-Aluminum Case for superior heat dissipation

-Supports "Plug & Play" and hot swappable (must be connected to hot swappable host to enable hot swappable function)

Specifications:

Model: LUX-350SA-BK, LUX-350SA-BL, LUX-350SA-GY

Interface: USB 2.0 & SATA

Dimension: 210(L) x 125 (W) x 34 (H) mm (appx 8" x 5" x 1.3")

Supports:

USB: Window 98SE/ME/2000/XP/Mac OS 8.6 & Above

Serial ATA: Windows 2000/XP/Mac OS 8.6 & Above

Package Includes:

Enclosure, Power Adaptor, Power Cable, USB Cable, IDE Power cable, Sata Bracket, External SATA Cable, Internal Sata Cable, Internal IDE cable, User Manual, Screws package, Stand, Driver CD, Cleaning wiper

As you can see, the Luxon is a pretty basic external enclosure. If you want 3.0Mbps eSATA, one button backup, etc, you should check out Vizo's Uranus. I'll call the Luxon an "entry level external hard drive enclosure".

Let's take a closer look.